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Djarts Voice Coaching ~ www.djarts.com.au
 
© Dr Daniel K. Robinson - 2012
 
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Lookbeforeyouleap!
 
By Dr Daniel K. Robinson
Recently, I read online via a news agency
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that another base jumper had beenkilled leaping from a telecommunications tower just north of Perth in WesternAustralia. Twenty-seven year old Lucas Oliver was an experienced skydiver andhad recently turned to base jumping for the ultimate thrill . Despite the obviousdangers, I can appreciate the appeal of such activities. I have had theopportunity to sky-dive (twice); hang-glide off Australia’s most easterly point(Byron Bay) and occasionally, when I’m feeling really game, I engage mymother-in-law in a conversation.
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Associated with each of these activities is afantastic surge of adrenalin. Why? Because there are a number of things thatcan go wrong…and if they do, it can be catastrophic! Of course, the flip side tothe highly calculated risk is the ecstasy of living on the edge and doingsomething that invigorates the lives of the people who participate in ‘extremesport’ activities. It’s worth noting as we proceed, that within the classification of extreme sports, there is a range from the relatively mundane (BMX and JetSkiing) to the most life-threatening activity of base jumping.Practically speaking, there is no risk to one’s life while singing popular culturemusic (PCM
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)
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, but there are associated risks to vocal health. Any compromise tovocal health can have a variety of outcomes, from the need for short-term vocalrest to corrective surgery requiring a long-term remedial journey.
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Anyinterruption of a vocalist’s ability to enjoy the activity of singing is problematicand distressing; not to mention the impact of lost income for the professionalsinger due to enforced vocal rest. This all sounds very negative but take heart; just as a base jumper engages with his extreme sport in a calculated fashion, socan contemporary vocalists enjoy the exhilaration of extreme vocal use with adeliberate, premeditated, and skillful approach.
 
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Djarts Voice Coaching ~ www.djarts.com.au
 
© Dr Daniel K. Robinson - 2012
 
Page
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of 
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As mentioned earlier, there is a range of risk levels within the classification of extreme sports; and so it is with contemporary vocals. The world of contemporary voice ranges from jazz and gospel at one end; to death, thrashand slash metal at the other. On this spectrum of genres is a range of vocaluse/loads which carry their own required application of the voice. It is importantto note at this point that I concur with esteemed ENT, Dr. Robert Sataloff, whenhe writes, “With sufficient understanding, patience, voice team skill, and patientcompliance, a vocally ‘right way’ can be found to do almost anything”.
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 Furthermore, it is important to stress that a musical genre is not the bad-guy; asIrene Bartlett suggests when she writes, “Style in itself does not cause damageto the vocal instrument; poor technique does”.
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So it is with these delimiters inplace (style is not bad; poor technique is bad) that we proceed with identifyingsome of the inherent technical challenges facing the contemporary vocalist.
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The Naughty but Nice List
Simply put, almost any practice taken to its extreme can be foolhardy as well asdangerous. The key is to work towards developing healthy sustainable habitswhich allow, in the case of the contemporary singer, the choice to indulge in the ‘naughty but nice list’ 
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of vocal effects. Let’s run through a range (notexhaustive) of vocal effects that many contemporary genres require of theirvocal artists:
 
 Aspirated Voice:
Breathiness is a great vocal effect which can create astylistic quality needed in genres such as jazz and pop ballads. However, thevoice that is habitually aspirated (breathy) runs the risk of developing vocalpathologies such as nodules, not to mention the challenge of reduced breathstream prolongation. Without discounting the stylistic benefits of an aspiratedvoice, some singers, including those with heavy vocal load schedules and thosewith a history of voice damage (particularly nodules), will benefit from thealternate tonal quality which I describe as
“ambient tone.” 
The ambient tone isachieved through the balanced activity of the shortener (thyroarytenoid) andlengthener (cricothyroid and cricoarytenoid) musculature.
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This balanced
 
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Djarts Voice Coaching ~ www.djarts.com.au
 
© Dr Daniel K. Robinson - 2012
 
Page
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of 
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muscle activity, when combined with measured breath flow and appropriatevocal tract shaping (kinesthetically adjusted by the singer), results in a softlyresonant sound not dissimilar to that of the aspirated voice; but minus the denseflow of air and injurious interruption to the vocal fold ripple wave which may beobserved in an aspirate voice. The highly adjustable sound of ‘ambient tone’ seems to mechanistically sit within Johan Sundberg’s description of “flowphonation” 
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in which “categorical descriptors for the range of perceived voicequalities during flow phonation are
firm-flutier 
to
richer-warm/mellow 
to
richest-brassier 
.” 
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Specifically, the ambient tone engages the laryngeal apparatus insuch a way as to “achieve complete (or essentially complete) closed-phasecontact during mucosal waving in relation to an optimal range of phonationthreshold pressures.” 
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That is, mechanistically ambient tone is nearly aspiratedbut not quite!
 
Vocal Fry:
The raspy (and at times pressed) edge to a sound is oftenreferred to as vocal fry. Creatively described in the literature as a soundresembling that of “frying food,” 
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the term ‘vocal fry’ as applied here should notbe confused with its customary usage in referencing registers.
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Responding tothe question, “Won’t vocal fry cause nodules?” contemporary practitioner JamesWigginton writes, “Habitual fry, just like habitual throat clearing, or habitualdonuts, can be damaging.” 
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Wigginton’s playful response does not dismiss therisks associated with vocal fry which has been listed among five
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sound qualitieswhich might characterize a voice as “dysphonic, or as presenting a dysphonia.” 
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 Wigginton goes on to commend the use of vocal fry for the display of “style andsong interpretation.” 
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Vocal Onsets:
There are a range of vocal fold onsets (the way the vocalfolds commence phonation). Breathy onset, also known as soft attack, whisperyor aspirate onset,
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commences vocal fold vibration with an “audible breathescap[ing] before phonation begins”.
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Hard onset, also known as pressed orglottal onset, hard or glottal attack, initiates tone with “the vocal folds closingtightly before phonation starts”.
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Vocal onsets (there is also balanced onset) areused to shape the phrase with varying artistic expressions. Attention to vocal
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